A friend of mine always copped a lot of flak for his emails. He never bothered with niceties, and always cut straight to what he was writing about. No “how are you?” or “hope you’re well”. He just didn’t think this was necessary for email communication. After some suggestions otherwise, he now commences his emails with “Hi X, how are you?”, and then launches into it.

So is there an etiquette?

Personally, I think it’s rude to start writing without even acknowledging the person you’re writing to. For example, I’ve received some emails from church database providers recently who launch straight into answering my question, without any introduction to the email! If I were them, I’d include something along the lines of “thanks for your email and interest in [MY PRODUCT]” – contact is a gift and shouldn’t be painful!

I’m also not keen on the “Steve, blah…” approach. I feel there’s something to be said for starting an email with “Hi” – it’s two letters, but to me, they mean a lot. They are friendly and acknowledge you’re communicating with a person. Afterall, we usually start face-to-face interactions with a “Hi”, don’t we?

Do you feel the same?

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